Design Contest Q&A thread

[CXDamian]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, and sorry about the typo(you won't believe how many times I typed rnadom ctyi)

honestly I'd be hard pressed to simply eliminate enough of the entries so far for a top 10 (in any category), theres still a lot of time left as well.

edit: I hate being on top of the page in a reply

 

[xienwolf]

Heh heh. I was actually watching the post-count waiting for Kael's quote of me to be taken off from first post of page It's yours now sucker!

 

[Capn Charlie]

I reworked my shepherd idea, more than just a little, and reposted it along with more about how and why it should and could work, I'd love feedback on this.

 

[Calavente]

I love it

the part about pillageable ressource is a bit iffy... it would mean the ressource is an improvement... so an improvement acting as a ressource that already exists somewhere esle..

but still very good

 

[Capn Charlie]

Well that's the thing, it isn't acting as a resource somewhere else, that other elsewhere resources is destroyed, consumed, by the shepherd unit for lack of a better word. What it is, is a gamble. you destroy that permanent cow over there for a just as good but less than permanent cow here. defend your borders, garrison the tile maybe, and it's just as good. But if you play a nomadic people all spread out and leave your important tiles undefended, well, it can get burnt down for good. That potential loss in my mind balances the massive gain of being able to "stack" your cities with all of these resources.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

Nay!!! Just leave it as relocating for good. Writing AI to move it will be hard enough, making it defend it will be even harder. It is also to complicated, the simpler the better. Relocating food resources fits nice to the nomadic theme. If it wins I bet we will see pledges to implement of relocating villages/hamlets and farms by workers. At least I will gona pledge for that

 

[it-ogo]

That potential loss in my mind balances the massive gain of being able to "stack" your cities with all of these resources.

I think no. It will be frustrating having Malakim as neighbours, first. Second, this "stack" will make a strong impact for Malakim in the very beginning - and thus completely overpowered. Third, Mal will be much more free in selecting places for cities, which is the greatest problem in the beginning - again overpowered. Fourth, many resources will be lost permanently by sudden attacks of animals and barbarians (OK, they can drop the resource where they are killed, but if there is another resource? Mana node?). Just move these Cowboys to Animal Mastery and they will be acceptable without sophistications like destroyability or act of war outside cultural borders. And it will give more strategy to plan research.

 

[it-ogo]

There are nice ideas on the Schism and Astrological mana alignment by beorn and GoodGame but I do not think they are good as just events. They may be interesting in far expansion.

Schism Pity that losing rush for the religion or joining foreign religion you lose perspectives. I imagine the separate split-off branch for each religion - with separate technology, heroes, effects and alignment. E.g. if you loose a rush for FoL you still can discover Way of the forest but then you have an option to research one of two FoL-specific techs: Hidden paths or Deception. (You can research Deception only if you have no FoL holy city.) When researched Deception you aquire Council of Esus holy city and 75% of your FoL cities (with buildings) and units converts to CoE. All other FoL nations also have an option to convert into CoE or remain FoL with 75%/25% ratio in favor of their choice. Relation penalty between FoL and CoE nations should be really strong, maybe war started automatically. Etc. There is much to imagine.

Astrology You may have a periodic circular change of sign, each gives you one type of mana (for other nations signs come at different time). This have a sense if you need mana not only to teach your spellcasters but even to use corresponding spells. And spells should be empowered depending on the quantiy of corresponding mana. E.g. before casting Trust wait for the Sign of Spirit alignment and you will have twice better effect. Wait for the Sign of Fire to start the war and your fireballs will be twice as strong etc.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

@kevjm: You mean 'Blight' not Armageddon, right?

 

[xanaqui42]

The promotion is "Plague Carrier", not "plaguebringer".

I like the event, although I wonder how implementable it is. On the other hand, I would be surprised if mine won't pass the implementation barrier (should it get that far), either.

 

[xanaqui42]

According to this slightly archaic page, an Armageddon count of 40 is Blight. Perhaps Blight (not Armageddon, which is a notification event at a count of 10) is what you're referring to?

 

[xanaqui42]

The Great Tower
Tower of Lights
The Great Watchtower
The Simple Spire
The Great Telescope (you don't have to point it at the heavens)

 

[smurven]

I think 600 dollars is pretty steep to prevent blight. If it is approaching 40, and you have played through the blight before, you will likely have a legion of workers being prepared and the effects of blight will be short lived. I'm just not sure i would spend that much to save only one city. Maybe others disagree.

 

[smurven]

sorry for the double post

@MacGyverInSpace, city hub wonder
correct me if i'm wrong, but extra coding would be needed for kuriotates to use this, since once you choose a kuriotates city to be a settlement instead of a city, they have -100% maintenance, -50% food and production, and -100% commerce. Unless you wanted them to work the 3rd ring of tiles without actual benefit which i doubt was your intention. Perhaps one option is having a unique national wonder for them that specifically reverses those effects.

@Capn Charlie, shepherd unit
One thing the malakim could do with your shepherd unit is push the Armageddon counter higher, have a shepherd for each resource, and right before you (or someone) pushed it over, pick them all up, blight happens, return them and suddenly youre in a much better position than everyone else.

 

[Randolph]

I also like the shepherd, but agree that the pillaging part is perhaps unnecessarily complex. Maybe it should be restricted to your cultural boarders, being able to run around the map grabing resources seems aufully powerful.

 

[Calavente]

don't forget the unit is quite weak and expensive (as much as a worker)
so you won't move around a lot of ressources in the wilderness... or if you do, you will lose a lot due to shepard sudden violent death
either you boost them with a warrior ... long trip
or they go alone... against orc spearmen, bears...

EDIT : then, in mid game, you could protect them effectively and have effective pillaging of the surrounding... but then, either the land is already heavily colonized...(taking the cattle would be declaring war), either there are lot of wilderness and you depleting a part won't be an issue for other civ until the late game)

 

[Randolph]

That's a good point, it would take a lot of time, resorces and risk to get resources outside of your natural expansion area. Workers (and thus the shepherd) are also relatively expensive early in the game.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

@ xienwolf: Pincushion

This is nice, I like it very much but think about catapults. This would give them perfect opportunity to deal coratelal damage to your stack. Now, with the AI obsest with catapults it will be a problem. If it is fixed it could be interesting.

 

[Frozen-Vomit]

I think I need some help with my event...

Could people please post what they think about it and if needs something (and if, what) to make it more worthwhile to choose option C.

I thought of just giving happiness in cities with your current state religion but that seems a bit boring.

Thanks in advance...

 

[Jono]

It's kind of cool. I think option A should give the owner of the holy city anarchy for one turn instead of a prophet. As for option C, I'd make it so the AC only changed when the religion's AV or Order and maybe add +1 happiness from state religion and +1 unhappiness from the other.

Any thoughts on my submissions?